Share your heckling experiences...

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the best? the worst?
Doesn't have to be one from your mouth.
I'll get the ball rolling and tell the embarrassing story of the time I yelled "play the car alarm song!" at a John Zorn/Mike Patton/Eye show at Tonic.
crickets...

Dr. T (dr. t), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

someone in the back back back of the crowd screaming "don't do it" durring the last almost silent bit of "like herod" (you know, before ethe whole not silent at all ending)at a mogwai show at warsaw a few years back.

stuart started to laugh and they almost didn't do it...

bb (bbrz), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

Your most succesful heckle at a live show.

down, heckler, down!

peepee (peepee), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:12 (twenty years ago)

Sometime in the mid-late 90s, during a stretch of interminable, monotonous noodling, I called Pavement "a bunch of old ladies." Because it was an NYU campus show, this was akin to screaming "I worship Satan!" in church.

I felt vindicated when the Daily News mentioned it in a review the next morning.

Dr. Gene Scott (shinybeast), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

ageist and sexist in one heckle, well done indeed

big campus on man, Friday, 12 August 2005 14:29 (twenty years ago)

I remember seeing The Mummies open for Thee Headcoats in about 1991.
The Mummies were dressed in mummy garb of course.

A guy in the audience wrapped himself in toilet paper and started dancing like Frankenstein while the band was playing. The audience was laughing pretty hard as the song ended.

But then the singer tore the fake mummy a new asshole with a particularly incisive zinger.

Brooker Buckingham (Brooker B), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:33 (twenty years ago)

sorry peepee, i was sure there were other threads, it's just seems such a daunting task to double-scrub...

Dr. T (dr. t), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:35 (twenty years ago)

No problem over here.
I personally don't mind double threads.

peepee (peepee), Friday, 12 August 2005 14:49 (twenty years ago)

that mogwai one is great!

Simon H. (Simon H.), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:00 (twenty years ago)

I saw a comedienne I heckled last night in The Aristocrats, but I can't remember what I said.

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

I got mad that she had insulted my Mexican friend who was on the way to the bathroom whether he was going to "steal the urinal." The comedy club was in the basement of the place where we eating, so we weren't prepared for this kind of thing.

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:03 (twenty years ago)

yeah, the parts of the crowd who knew what was up heartily chuckled

bb (bbrz), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:06 (twenty years ago)

::pat::

n/a (Nick A.), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:10 (twenty years ago)

Jesus Lizard support act, ages ago in Brussels: "hello, we are the Stanford Prison Experiment and we're happy to be here." Second song: "we are the Stanford Prison Experiment and our next song is called ..."
etc. etc. etc. The singer must have told us they were called The Stanford Prison Experiment about fifteen times during their half hour show, and after their last song, just before they leave, someone in the crowd yells: "hey! what was your name again?"

StanM (StanM), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:14 (twenty years ago)

Dude, they were paying for that lameass comedy. We were just in the UPSTAIRS for the cheep beer and eats and had to make room for more beer, if you know what I'm saying, and the only route to relaxation was down into the basement, through the comedy club. Although now that I think of it, another time I was at that place and they comedian asked me if I had left an "upper decker."

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)

(xpost for my last one)

"upper decker"?!? you came down from upstairs? hunh?

bb (bbrz), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:19 (twenty years ago)

Shortly afterward I learned that this meant leaving your deposit on the wrong chamber of the flush toilet, the antechamber as it were, where the aperture is large enough to allow the escape of running water, but is sufficiently small that your donation will have to be removed by hand, when it is eventually discovered.

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

see the most recent John Waters flick for an illustration of this

kingfish completely hatstand (Kingfish), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:39 (twenty years ago)

on the
this should of course by "in the," for if it were on top, it would not so easily escape detection.

k/l (Ken L), Friday, 12 August 2005 15:41 (twenty years ago)

At an Archers of Loaf concert once, my friend screamed out "Four part harmony, a-capella 'Chumming The Ocean'!" and Erich Bachmann just lost it, laughing. Then he goes, "you've got a loud voice, man"

kornrulez6969 (TCBeing), Friday, 12 August 2005 19:40 (twenty years ago)

Whenever screamo-hardcore bands play at local shows I have a tendency to call out in between songs that I think they're a bunch of tame fucking hippies.

Ian Riese-Moraine: a casualty of social estrangement. (Eastern Mantra), Friday, 12 August 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

this isn't exactly a heckle per se, but i have this friend whose voice packs a fucking wallop. at a Luscious Jackson show years ago, i had my friend do his patented yell thing, which is kinda like a weird war cry, but deafening, and jill cuniff literally stopped the show as if to say 'what the fuck was that?!' like her amp was blown or something...

ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 12 August 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

Two I've heard and rememebr....

Cranes, Irving Plaza, NYC '97:

"Play 'Starblood' you FUCKING BITCH!!!" yelled out to meek and tiny Allison Shaw by a drunk b&t asshole. They did play it later in the show, sadly.


Dirty Three, Henry Fonda Theatre, Hollywood '03:

"Dude, play that song that starts out really sad and then gets really crazy!" yelled by a random guy just as Warren Ellis was about to start a new song, which actually threw his concentration enough, and was funny enough, that he and the band broke down laughing....

jsoulja (jsoulja), Friday, 12 August 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

ooh, i've got a good dirty three heckle... detroit, magic stick, 2000, some girl in the crowd is screaming "Play Gentle Waves!!" like, the whole night. Warren Ellis finally stops and is like "why don't YOU fucking play it?!?" so she proceeds to come up onstage, takes his violin, and plays the track note for fucking note.

we were awestruck

ken taylrr (ken taylrr), Friday, 12 August 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

oh shit, i think i might know folks who woulda been at that show

kingfish completely hatstand (Kingfish), Friday, 12 August 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

"I sucked my boss' dick!" unknowingly sitting next to Kurt Wagner's relatives. A few laughs and yeah's followed.

white boi, Friday, 12 August 2005 22:39 (twenty years ago)

While watching Ralph MacTell at Cropredy festival a few years back, there was a whole group of people yelling "Ralphy, play Aphabet Zoo" at every opportunity. (For the non-UKers, Alphabet Zoo was a lame 80's kiddy TV programme that Ralph used to present/sing the theme tune).

Jack Battery-Pack (Jack Battery-Pack), Saturday, 13 August 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

More Dirty Three anecdotes!

Some dude was shouting for Mick Turner between every song, which was funny maybe the first half-dozen times, and finally Warren takes the time to introduce Mick who gives a little shy grin and bow, to much audience laughter, but the heckler just interprets this as more support and so continues to scream Mick's name between at every possible moment for the rest of the set, finally triggering another anti-heckler trying to shut the first guy up, much to the Three's annoyance as they're just trying to play.

soultr0n, Saturday, 13 August 2005 06:36 (twenty years ago)

foetus at the garage in glasgow, several disappointed audience members (who hadn't already left)shouting for foetus to do laughing gnome.

we tried to put ralf & florian off by shouting "tauchsieder" at them. didn't work tho.

or bomb disneyland supporting nitzer ebb at the astoria when a loaf was launched from the crowd to hit the drummer. a cracker of a shot.

i did throw a shakin' stevens badge at the smiths drummer once.

frenchbloke (frenchbloke), Saturday, 13 August 2005 06:43 (twenty years ago)

I remember some dude yelling out 'hello!? Mcfly!?' during a quiet moment at an Interpol show. The guy nailed it, sounded just like Biff Tannen. It was genius

Seuss, Saturday, 13 August 2005 07:29 (twenty years ago)

Apparently the entire Billy Corgan solo gig in Sydney was marred (or enhance, depending on yer pov) by hecklers shouting "play Pumpkins songs!" and "this isnt as good as the Pumpkins!" all thru the gig. Towards the end Corgan was visibly upset and saying stuff about trying to get on with his shit, and one last "PUMPKINS SONGS!" holler was too much, and he dropped his mic with a stony glare and just walked off stage. Ha! Wish I'd seen that.

At a Lush gig I was at in the early 90s, after they played a whole set with nary a word, some wag shouted "Miki, sharrs ya tits!" just before the last encore. She glared up furiously and snapped "get fucked, CUNT."

Then they ripped into "babytalk". Marvellous.

Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 13 August 2005 08:07 (twenty years ago)

On a tape of The Cocteau Twins from Edinburgh '84

*Quiet section between songs*

Incredibly loud and drunken Scot - "PEPPERMINT PIG!!!"

Repeat about 6 times.

Another loud and drunken Scot - "ANARCHY IN THE UK!!!"

First Scot answers weakly, sounding wounded and a bit petulant - "Shut up.."

Remainder of crowd - "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAARRGGHHH"

Liz - under her breath, but still through the microphone so we can all hear "ohfurchristsake...."

mzui (mzui), Saturday, 13 August 2005 08:20 (twenty years ago)

Ahaha thats great :) I have a few cocteaus boots that have some great shouting on them, someone yelling "ALAS DIES LAFFING" in one... and at the royal albert gig, robin knocking his mic stand over (whyd he even have one?) and saying "och, Ive dropped me mic".

Trayce (trayce), Saturday, 13 August 2005 08:25 (twenty years ago)

When I saw the Jicks a few years ago, there was somebody who, after every single song, would yell "You are doing a good job!" like he was cheering on some kid with Downs Syndrome in the Special Olympics.

casey (t. fiend), Saturday, 13 August 2005 17:55 (twenty years ago)

I remember some dude yelling out 'hello!? Mcfly!?' during a quiet moment at an Interpol show. The guy nailed it, sounded just like Biff Tannen. It was genius

-- Seuss (seuss198...), August 13th, 2005.

i'm guessing that this was in reference to the fact that carlos d looks a little like crispin glover...??

ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Saturday, 13 August 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

i once yelled "HI DERE WAHT IS IT MADE" at richie hawtin

beatles fan, Saturday, 13 August 2005 23:05 (twenty years ago)

I have no idea what, if anything, it was in reference to. It seemed totally out of left field. That's why I liked it.

Seuss, Sunday, 14 August 2005 04:20 (twenty years ago)

soultr0n, was that at the tla in philly about two years ago? i was there. i thought that guy was kind of funny for some reason, although i have no trouble seeing why someone else would think he was being obnoxious.

spastic heritage, Sunday, 14 August 2005 14:59 (twenty years ago)

At the Arcade Fire show in Glasgow, there was this trio of little rugby dudes high on E who were jumping and cheering near the front, glazed-eyed and mad, yelling "ARCADE FIRE!" at the band, in thick Scottish accents, near constantly.

"Okay, so we're the Arcade Fire and we're from Mo-"
"ARCADE FAY-AH!!!"
"We're from Montreal."
"ARCADE FAY-AH!!!"

It was a pretty good cheer, actually, just bellowing the name of the band. I'll try that at the Josephine Foster gig later this month.

sean gramophone (Sean M), Sunday, 14 August 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

I don't get the Mogwai one.

Leeeeeeee (Leee), Sunday, 14 August 2005 18:02 (twenty years ago)

they start off quiet and then they go loud. it's real exciting and unpredictable ;)

ken taylrr has gone off the internet because of you (ken taylrr), Sunday, 14 August 2005 19:19 (twenty years ago)

what does "HI DERE WAHT IS IT MADE" mean?

HeaveHo, Saturday, 27 August 2005 00:36 (twenty years ago)

not really a 'heckle' but we started a "soccer chant" for the Pope John Paul the day he died @ the QotSA show in cleveland.
it actually got some variations thru-out the show, including a nod from from josh annoucing "the pope's in the wolf", "this song's 'in my pope'" and "this one's about that pope guy".
all the while, betwixt songs, the Pope chant went on....
gloriously drunken.

edde, Saturday, 27 August 2005 01:55 (twenty years ago)


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